March miscellany

Best worst title for a lower-division poetry paper:
Personal Thoughts

Best worst answer for a quiz question on A Streetcar Named Desire (Q: Who comes to visit Stella and Stanley? A: Blanche):
Donny
The kicker is that Blanche was named in one of the other questions.

Best worst excuse for not being prepared for class/completing the assigned reading:
I was absent when you told us to buy the book.

Regionalisms that are starting to drive me crazy:
"feel" pronounced "fill"
"program" pronounced "progrum"
"roof" pronounced "ruff"
"buttocks" pronounced "boo-tocks" (okay, only one person says this, and she is easily forgiven)
"pop" for "soda"
"sack" for "bag" at the grocery store, and the baggers who want to put a two-pack of soy milk with a handle for carrying into a "sack" with ten other things

Because everyone needs more topless 70s musicians

And it's fun and games at work, with everyone's knickers in a twist about something called the DFW list. Unfortunately, the DFW list has nothing to do with the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport; instead it is a list of courses and professors whose classes have what has been deemed a disproportionately high percentage of students withdrawing (hence the "W") or earning Ds and Fs. Supposedly the people on the list are not in trouble, but each department has been tasked with doing something about the statistics, and there is an implication that state funding may be at risk. Sounds a lot like No Child Left Behind, University Edition. Since when can any instructor control whether students drop a class? How are we supposed to do anything about withdrawals? Or Ds and Fs for that matter? The only time students get Fs in my courses is when they do not turn in an assignment. And of course, not having tenure makes me feel that my role in department meetings is to nod and smile.

Snåsa: Gato Columbus

Eric and I had a nice visit to Tulsa on Saturday; going there makes me feel like I am rejoining civilization. Looking around at Whole Foods, I see people that look familiar. River Park was full of dog walkers, joggers, and cyclists, and the day was pretty if a bit chilly. We saw Fiddlefest at the Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center with free tickets from the office of the VP at the university, and today I got another set of free tickets to see the Glenn Miller Orchestra next weekend.

River Park, Tulsa